Okay, we won’t go into details of how long it took me to find books for this post…
I don’t do “spooky”, “creepy”, “spine-chilling” or anything of that nature…
I’m a total scaredy cat!
My Halloween = the cute and adorable spooky…
I’m more Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown and hiding my eyes during anything slightly scary.
Yes, feel free to laugh and tease me, I’m use to it
My husband loves all things spooky and creepy while I have a wildly overactive imagination.
I wasn’t always this wimpy when it came to spooky reads, I use to love Fear Street books and other spooky tales when I was in middle school and junior high. I think I owned almost all the Fear Street books, I use to get so excited when we went to the book store and there was a new release. And I remember one of my first spooky books, I read it so many times it was falling apart (and yes, I included that book in this list).
I have no idea what happened…
However, Halloween calls for spooky books so here’s a *small* list of a few that either I have actually read or friends recommended (and I refuse to read haha). I tried to include a variety… from thrillers to hauntings, true crime and just down right creepy.
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Litani
by Jess Lourey
Available October 19, 2021
“The Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.“
Within These Wicked Walls
by Lauren Blackwood
Available October 19, 2021
“What the heart desires, the house destroys…“
Dark and Shallow Lies
by Ginny Myers Sain
Available Now
“A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot“
Chasing the Boogeyman
by Richard Chizmar
Available Now
“In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb.”
Mexican Gothic
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Available Now
“An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . .”
Survive the Night
by Riley Sager
Available Now
“It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.”
The Final Girl Support Group
by Grady Hendrix
Available Now
“In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?“
The Girls are Never Gone
by Sarah Glenn Marsh
Available Now
“The Conjuring meets Sadie in this queer ghost story, when seventeen-year-old podcaster Dare finds herself in a life-or-death struggle against an evil spirit.“
The Tenth Girl
by Sara Faring
Available Now
“A haunted Argentinian mansion.
A family curse.
A twist you’ll never see coming.
Welcome to Vaccaro School.
Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist.“
House of Hollow
by Krystal Sutherland
Available Now
“Darkly seductive, this twisty modern-day fairy tale is a gripping, terrifying journey where three sisters discover they are not all that they seem.“
House of Salt and Sorrows
by Erin A. Craig
Available Now
“As one by one her beautiful sisters mysteriously die on their isolated island estate, Annaleigh must unravel the curse that haunts her family.“
Ghost Girl
by Ally Malinenko
Available Now
“Zee Puckett loves ghost stories.
She just never expected to be living one.“
Wait Til Helen Comes
by Mary Downing Hahn
Available Now
“Since its publication in 1986, the deliciously frightening novel Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story has not only haunted countless readers, but has also won eleven state book awards. The spine-chilling tale begins when twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, learn that they’ll be moving to a refurbished old church in rural Maryland with their mother’s new husband, Dave, and their younger stepsister, Heather. Heather is an insufferable brat, but that turns out to be the least of the family’s worries. When she strikes up a friendship with Helen, the malevolent ghost of a seven-year-old girl who died in a mysterious fire more than a hundred years ago, things really heat up . . . and Heather’s unsettling threat, “Wait till Helen comes,” becomes a grim reality.“
Do you have a favorite spooky read? Have you read any of the above books? Let me know!
What a great list! I’ve ben looking for something new to read. I am looking at:
Litani – for my 15 year old because she loves Bloodlines
I think I would go with Survive the Night – looks creepy! (Maybe I should only read it during the day!)
Which one is the Fear Street book?
Thanks for a great list!
I didn’t add any Fear Street in, I found too many newer books I wanted to include. Look up R.L.Stine Fear Street, there are SO many to choose from!! The Wait Till Helen Comes is the one from my childhood.